| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence: bruised blood, deep inside their souls and bodies. And it would need a
new hope.
Poor Connie! As the years drew on it was the fear of nothingness In her
life that affected her. Clifford's mental life and hers gradually began
to feel like nothingness. Their marriage, their integrated life based
on a habit of intimacy, that he talked about: there were days when it
all became utterly blank and nothing. It was words, just so many words.
The only reality was nothingness, and over it a hypocrisy of words.
There was Clifford's success: the bitch-goddess! It was true he was
almost famous, and his books brought him in a thousand pounds. His
photograph appeared everywhere. There was a bust of him in one of the
Lady Chatterley's Lover |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche: essentially fundamental tendency in latter-day civilizations. I
have no doubt that an ancient Greek, also, would first of all
remark the self-dwarfing in us Europeans of today--in this
respect alone we should immediately be "distasteful" to him.
268. What, after all, is ignobleness?--Words are vocal symbols
for ideas; ideas, however, are more or less definite mental
symbols for frequently returning and concurring sensations, for
groups of sensations. It is not sufficient to use the same words
in order to understand one another: we must also employ the same
words for the same kind of internal experiences, we must in the
end have experiences IN COMMON. On this account the people of one
Beyond Good and Evil |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: at her in particular. While this was doing one of the three boats
that followed made up to the boat which we had disabled, to relieve
her, and we could see her take out the men. We then called again
to the foremost boat, and offered a truce, to parley again, and to
know what her business was with us; but had no answer, only she
crowded close under our stern. Upon this, our gunner who was a
very dexterous fellow ran out his two case-guns, and fired again at
her, but the shot missing, the men in the boat shouted, waved their
caps, and came on. The gunner, getting quickly ready again, fired
among them a second time, one shot of which, though it missed the
boat itself, yet fell in among the men, and we could easily see did
Robinson Crusoe |
The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart: disappeared. He accused the doctor of the deception, and,
crossing the lawn, had said something cruel to Louise. Then,
furious at her apparent connivance, he had started for the
station. Doctor Walker and Paul Armstrong--the latter still lame
where I had shot him--hurried across to the embankment, certain
only of one thing. Halsey must not tell the detective what he
suspected until the money had been removed from the chimney-
room. They stepped into the road in front of the car to stop
it, and fate played into their hands. The car struck the train,
and they had only to dispose of the unconscious figure in the
road. This they did as I have told. For three days Halsey lay
The Circular Staircase |
